NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When the NCAA Tournament brackets are revealed on Sunday, Mississippi State is expected to be in the middle of the bracket as a No. 8 or 9 seed.

While it’s nice to not sweat whether they’re in or out, the Bulldogs might still wonder what might have been.

The Bulldogs continued a late-season slump with an 85-73 loss to Missouri in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday. It was their fifth loss in seven games, and four of those have gotten away in crunch time.

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Missouri finished on a 16-4 run Thursday to turn a tight two-point game with five minutes left into a 12-point victory that was much closer than it appeared. Tamar Bates finished with 25 points for the Tigers (22-10) and Tony Perkins scored 20.

Missouri advanced to face Florida in the quarterfinals on Friday night.

“Would definitely like to have those last four minutes back. Obviously it doesn’t work that way. It was winning time, and we didn’t play well in winning time. That’s the bottom line,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “In the end, time runs out, right? You got to make the plays. You got to get stops. We just weren’t able to do it.”

Closing out games has been a struggle for Mississippi State (21-12) lately. It lost in overtime to Texas, on a last-second shot to Arkansas, and then gave up late runs that allowed Oklahoma and Missouri pull away.

Mississippi State’s only two wins during the current 2-5 stretch were both against LSU, which is one of only two teams in the rugged SEC with a losing record.

Sophomore guard Josh Hubbard said the Bulldogs aren’t deterred, but need to straighten some things out.

“Yeah, we’re definitely a special team this year. Definitely can make some runs. Got the potential to be a scary team in March Madness,” said Hubbard, who scored 24 points against Missouri. “Hopefully we just have to react good to this. We wanted this win. Just look forward to next week.”

Despite the slump, Mississippi State is still projected to be among a record 13 SEC teams selected for the NCAA Tournament. ESPN projects it as a No. 8 seed in the East Region, paired up with Creighton in the first round and possibly No. 1 seed Duke in the second.

It’s a difficult draw, and one that might have been been more favorable had it won some of those close games late in the season.

Jans said there’s not much to do now but reset and prepare for what is, thankfully, another chance.

“Sure, 10,000-foot view, we’re in a good position. But wanted to be in a better position. Wanted to be in a great position,” Jans said. “I thought we weathered the storm pretty good. But we didn’t finish the regular season with the overtime loss to Texas, then the one-point loss to Arkansas. Definitely hit the reset button coming down here and felt really good about where we were at and the vibe and our practices and our focus. Played well (Wednesday).

“Just didn’t play well at winning time. That’s the bottom line. We just didn’t play well the last four minutes of this particular game,” Jans continued. “Eventually we’ll regroup here soon and be excited about what’s next for us. But right now it’s opportunities we let get away from us.”